CELEBRATIONS turned sour when around 30 cars were booked for parking violations at the Vincentia High School year 12 graduation on Thursday.
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Families who watched their children celebrate their final day of school left the assembly deflated when they found parking tickets on the cars, which were parked on both sides of The Wool Road.
Vincentia High School principal Steve Glenday said cars have parked in the same areas for big events for 20 years with no bookings.
“It’s extremely disappointing,” he said.
“The ranger came while the ceremony was on and began to book cars. One of our staff members approached him explaining what was going on, but he continued to book.
“I called council to see if the tickets could be overturned, but they can’t. All we can do now is write a letter to the Office of State Revenue, which we have since done – hopefully, council will support that letter.”
Mr Glenday said he was most disappointed that students would remember their graduation day for the wrong reasons.
“It has taken the gloss off the successes our year 12s have achieved in their 13 years of school,” he said.
“There are no stopping signs but it’s never been an issue … we offer up our venue for parking all the time for events like the Fleet Review and I know there were cars parked in the same areas then with no bookings.”
Mr Glenday said parents had no choice but to park in the no stopping areas as the school car park and Bay and Basin Leisure Centre were full.
Shoalhaven Mayor Joanna Gash said council was not notified of the event.
“We are usually told when there is an event on so we can tell our rangers what is going on. This didn’t happen,” she said.
“We can’t tell our rangers not to do their job … I certainly encourage people to write to [the Office of] State Revenue and council will also be writing a letter to try to overturn the fines.
“I do regret that this has happened and I think it is a shame the parking has become the issue of note rather than the graduation of our wonderful year 12 students.”
June Collison from Sanctuary Point was one of the lucky few who walked away from the school without a parking ticket. She was at the school to support her grand-daughter who was also celebrating her 18th birthday.
“It’s very unfortunate,” she said.
“I feel sad for those parents who received a fine, because they were only trying to do the right thing by supporting their children who have graduated from school.
“There is no way those cars would have stopped the flow of traffic where they were parked and they were very neatly angle parked … hopefully the fines will be reversed for them.”